1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device and an auxiliary device for communication and more particularly to a surveillance system that employs remote communication devices that can provide detection capabilities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been available, for example, a communication device in the fields of crime prevention and fire prevention, associated with security systems each working under a contract with a security company, in order to protect properties such as buildings, warehouses and others. These devices can utilize surveillance sensors such as a smoke sensor, a thermal sensor, and an infrared sensor placed at predetermined sites in a building and establish an on-line connection with a surveillance center of the security company through indoor wiring.
A security contract fee relating to such a system, however, can be highly expensive and therefore, there has been only a minor proliferation of such security systems in the home management field. In addition to such poor proliferation, there has been a problem since, in a case where an abnormality is detected such as a fire at the surveillance center, the fire may grow to a large scale during the time period a guard or guards are on the way to the scene. Further, in a case where the abnormality is an intrusion by an unauthorized person, the intruder, could successfully complete an intended crime and leave the site of the crime before a guard or guards arrive at the site.
A more substantial security system to cope with such situations requires installment of a crime/fire prevention camera, which causes another problem in the home management field since the security contract fee is further raised according to the camera or cameras installed.
Furthermore, even if a security contract is concluded in home management, usually only abnormality detection is conducted at a surveillance center, but a subscriber on the move outside the home may not have immediate knowledge of an abnormality in the home.
In the fields of welfare and medical care, there are cases which require a constant care by a helper because of accompaniment of dangers and insecurities if no helper is available, for example, cases where an elderly person behaves abnormally, a condition where a patient in bed changes rapidly, and a baby or an infant has woken up. In such cases, however, there frequently arise a great burden in said constant care and the daily life of the family members, which limits the ability of the care providers to leave home. With such circumstances as the background, realization of a low cost security system has been strongly desired in the aspects of the crime/fire prevention, and welfare and medical care.
As one of the communication devices to achieve such a desire, there has been a proposal to provide a device which survey the outputs from various kinds of sensors and transmits surveillance information from the sensors to a portable terminal (PHS) for receiving the surveillance information from a transmitting means, so that information on abnormality occurrence can be sent to the PHS (see Japanese Laid Open Application No. 97-54886 for example).
In the above described system, a construction is adopted in which the various kinds of sensors, output surveillance means and transmitting means for surveillance information are online connected with a telephone line and therefore, there has been still another problem since not only is a placement work of the sensors necessary, but the subscriber cannot change arbitrarily installment sites of the sensors because surveillance by the sensors is conducted at a surveillance center. In addition to this problem, there has arisen a still further problem since all the pictures of surveillance, shot by, for example, the cameras installed at many different points, are watched collectively at the surveillance center side and the occurrence of an abnormality may be difficult among all the picture information. With such a prior art background, in order to precisely detect various factors for an abnormality occurrence, a necessity has arisen that various sensors (a fire sensor, crime sensor and other sensors) serving as suppliers of judgment standards are employed in an auxiliary manner and thereby, a crime prevention facility has become more complex according to the employment of such sensors, which causes an inevitable increase in cost of a contract with the surveillance center.
The present invention has been made in light of such circumstances and it is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device enabling remote surveillance of any intruder or a fire in order to protect a property and to provide remote safety confirmation of human life, precisely in real time at a low cost by individuals, singularly or in a small number, without relying on a security company, a hired helper or the like.
A communication device to achieve the object, according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises: infrared detecting unit for detecting infrared rays, provided to a holder base for a portable telephone equipped with speech and image transmitting functions on commercial electromagnetic waves or to a vessel connected to the holder; and an auto-dialing instruction originating section for calling a preset telephone equipped with an image display function as a recipient automatically based on a predetermined output signal from an infrared detecting unit, provided to one of the portable phone, the holder for the portable telephone or to a vessel connected to the holder.
As a portable telephone equipped with an image transmitting function as described above, there can be exemplified various types of portable telephones: in which an image pick-up unit for an image is included; in a holder for which the image pick-up unit is included or in a vessel connected to the holder for which the image pick-up unit is included; and to which the image pick-up unit is connected by wired or wireless communication links so as to be located at a remote site from the portable telephone and the holder therefor.
In crime/fire prevention, for example, the communication devices with the above described construction and arrangement are preferably positioned at as many sites as possible in a building, a warehouse and so on, while, on the other hand, a telephone with an image display function (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9ctelephone on the recipient sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) which can be different from a portable telephone that a communication device would comprise (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9ctelephone on the sender sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) is made ready to use and the telephone on the recipient side is set so as to be addressed by the auto-dialing instruction originating section. It should be appreciated that the telephone on the recipient side may be of either an installed type or a portable type, and the portable type is preferable if a recipient is frequently on the move outside the home or office.
With such an arrangement, in a case where a suspicious person intrudes into a warehouse or the like, infrared rays radiated by the intruder are caught by the infrared detecting unit when the intruder enters the effective range of the communication device, or in a case where a fire breaks out, infrared rays radiated by a flame is caught by the infrared detecting unit, and a predetermined output signal is generated from the infrared detecting unit and thereby, the auto-dialing instruction originating section calls a preset, specified telephone on the recipient side automatically.
Since the telephone on the recipient side has a function of displaying picked-up image information (which is a still image or a dynamic image, but in the present specification, simply referred to as an xe2x80x9cimagexe2x80x9d) sent from the sender side, a picture and voice of the suspicious person are transmitted in a case of intrusion of the suspicious person or a picture image of the fire and a series of crackling sounds generated by the fire are transmitted in a case of a fire, if the telephone on the recipient side is switched to a communication session. Hence, if the telephone on the recipient side is of a portable type, the recipient, wherever she or he is, can recognize each of the actual situations with certainty in real time. Further, a picture image obtained by shooting the person under surveillance with certainty can be transmitted since infrared rays radiated by a person under surveillance is detected and a picture is transmitted based on a predetermined output from the infrared detecting unit.
Therefore, when such an unwanted situation is recognized, the recipient can request, using the telephone on the recipient side, a rescue from selected, appropriate other people such as acquaintances residing in the neighborhood in addition to a police department or fire department, and especially when the telephone on the recipient side is a portable type, the recipient can prepare conditions of readiness to prevent crime or fire at an early time period from wherever the recipient is located.
Further, when a communication device with the above described construction on the sender side is placed, for example, at an exit/entrance such as a front door, a rear door and so on, a person who passes through each of the doors is caught by the infrared detecting unit, or when the communication device with the above described construction is placed, for example, around a patient in a bed or a baby or an infant in a crib or the like, movements of a human body (the patient in bed and the baby or infant in a crib) are caught by the infrared detecting unit and based on the particular outputs, the telephone on the recipient side is automatically called. With such arrangement, detection of an incoming visitor can be remotely detected in addition to cases where an elderly person loiters or behaves abnormally, a condition of a patient in bed changes rapidly, and a baby or infant has woken up.
Still in addition to the above cases, when a communication device with such a construction is placed adjacent an auto-bicycle or at appropriate positions in the cabin of a car or the like, detection and notification based thereon when robbery or theft occurs on a car can be performed by a telephone on the recipient side and in this case, it is preferable that an image recording device is externally connected to the telephone on the recipient side and picked-up image information from the communication device on the sender side is recorded.
That is, when a person at the scene of a fire is recorded in an image recording device, a fire could be revealed to be arson or when theft occurs and a person is recorded in the image recording device, then the recorded image can be a clue to specify a criminal, and in the cases, the respective recorded images can be evidence for arson and theft. A power supply to a holder for a portable telephone in certain cases may be satisfactorily performed through a cigarette lighter section or from batteries in the cabin.
Furthermore, in the field of agriculture, when communication devices with the above configuration are placed, for example, at predetermined sites inside a structure such as a vinyl greenhouse, offenses by wild animals can be detected.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the telephone on the recipient side is equipped with an image display unit, it can be confirmed visually in a remote manner whether a calling information source of the telephone on the sender side is an intrusion of a suspicious person or a breaking-out of a fire and in addition to this, various worrisome events can be confirmed visually in a remote manner, such as the presence of a visitor, loitering of an elderly person, a rapid change in condition of a patient in bed, waking up of a baby or an infant, a criminal in a robbery or theft of a car, a burglar into a home and offenses of a wild animal. Still in addition to these, since the telephone on the recipient side is equipped with an image display function, there is no need to externally connect an image display device, thereby enabling the communication device to contribute to emergencies in various situations.
Accordingly, measures for crime and fire prevention and medical care can be performed with essentially no mistakes and since the scene can be actually confirmed with an image even in malfunctioning of an infrared sensor and on reception of false information on small animals as well, immediate dispatch to the scene to be otherwise caused by false information and fruitless efforts associated therewith can be avoided.
A second aspect of the present invention is directed to a communication device equipped with a telephone conversation function used on commercial magnetic waves comprises, a transmitting unit for transmitting an image shot using an image pick-up unit to a recipient; and an infrared detecting unit and a dialing setting unit for calling a preset telephone with a image display function of the recipient, wherein a predetermined output signal from the infrared detecting unit is entered into the dialing setting unit, so that the preset telephone with a image display function of the recipient is automatically called.
According to the above described construction and arrangement, on one hand, in cases of crime and fire prevention, the communication devices with the above construction are preferably placed at as many predetermined sites as possible in a building using holders, etc., warehouse and others, while on the other hand, a telephone equipped with an image display function (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cportable telephone on the recipient sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) which may be different from the communication devices (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cportable telephones on the sender sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) is made ready for use and a directory number of the telephone on the recipient side is entered into a dialing setting unit of the portable telephone on the sender side. With such an arrangement and operation, in a case where a suspicious person intrudes into a warehouse and other buildings, infrared rays radiated by the intruder is caught by the infrared detecting unit when the intruder moves around in the neighborhood of the portable telephone, or in a case where a fire breaks out, infrared rays radiated from a flame is caught by the infrared detecting unit, and a predetermined output signal is entered into the dialing setting unit, so that the dialing setting unit calls the telephone on the recipient side automatically.
That is, since a communication device of the second aspect of the present invention is equipped with a transmitting unit for transmitting a shot image to a recipient, and since the telephone on the recipient side is equipped with an image display unit for displaying a shot image information, it can be visually confirmed whether a call information of the portable telephone on the sender side is an intrusion of a suspicious person or a breaking-out of a fire and further which of the presence of a visitor, loitering of an elderly person, a rapid change in condition of a patient in bed, waking up of a baby and infant, criminal in robbery or theft on a car, a burglar into the home and offenses of a wild animal occur.
When a communication device is equipped with one of a sensor sensing infrared rays of 10 xcexcm in wavelength radiated from a human body and a sensor sensing infrared rays in the vicinity of 4.3 xcexcm in wavelength radiated from a flame, both serving as an infrared sensor included in an infrared detecting unit, it can be precisely confirmed whether a command of auto-calling of a specified telephone is issued by a human body detecting sensor, by a fire detecting sensor, or by both.
A communication device of a third aspect of the present invention is characterized by having a transmitting unit for transmitting a shot image using an image pick-up unit to a recipient and line setting unit for calling a preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient, wherein a predetermined output signal is entered into the line setting unit on a predetermined change in the imaged pixels constituting a target subject among pixels detectable by the image pick-up unit as the timing of initiating a call, so that the preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient is automatically called.
A communication device of a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized by having a line setting unit for calling a preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient, wherein a predetermined output signal is entered into the line setting unit when a change in a target straight line constructed of a plurality of pixels constituting a target subject among pixels detectable by the image pick-up unit as the timing of a call operation, so that the preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient is automatically called.
Furthermore, a communication device of a fifth aspect of the present invention having a transmitting unit for transmitting a shot image using an image pick-up unit to a recipient and a line setting unit for calling a preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient, wherein a predetermined output signal is entered into the line setting unit that would be transmitted when a change in a plurality of straight line pixels or a given area constructed of a plurality of pixels constituting a subject among pixels detectable by the image pick-up unit occurs, so that the preset communication device with an image display function of the recipient is automatically called.
The image pick-up unit of the communication device with such a construction and arrangement are preferably placed at as many predetermined sites as possible in a building, warehouse and other locations as necessary, while a communication device equipped with an image display function (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ccommunication device on the recipient sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) which may be different from the communication devices (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ccommunication devices on the sender sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) is made ready for use. A transmission line of the communication device on the recipient side is preset in the line setting unit of the communication device on the sender side. With such an arrangement and operations, crime and fire prevention can be achieved.
That is, in a case where a suspicious person intrudes into a warehouse or other buildings, the instant at which a part of a subject shot by the image pick-up means changes by movement of an intruder when the intruder moves around in the vicinity of the image pick-up unit acts as a timing signal for calling, and a predetermined output signal is entered into the line setting unit. Alternately, in a case where a fire breaks out, the instant at which a part of an image of the target subject changes by a swaying of a flame acts as a timing signal for calling, and a predetermined output signal is entered into the line setting unit. Thereby, the line setting unit calls the communication device on the recipient side automatically.
It should be appreciated that, in general, it is possible to use any detectable change in the pixels of a shot image of a surveillance objective as establishing a change in the subject image. In this case, however, such a device may become too expensive since a high performance image processing section and a high performance arithmetic processing section are necessary to detect such a change and in addition to this, the power consumption increases, which in turn, requires a large capacity power supply and limits the portability of the drives. Furthermore, even a change in image that is not problematic, such as a change in image, shot by the imaging unit, caused by movement of a small animal or by sways of a lifeless object under the influence of a wind has a possibility of being detected. Hence, a predetermined part of a subject target from an image of a surveillance object shot by the image pick-up unit is preset and only a change in that the part of the target subject is preferably detected.
In such a way, since the transmitting unit for transmitting a shot image to a recipient is equipped to the communication device on the sender side and since the image display unit for displaying image information is equipped to the communication device on the recipient side, it can be visually confirmed whether a calling information source of the portable communication device on the sender side is an intrusion of a suspicious person or a breaking out of a fire, and in addition to this, it can be visually confirmed further which of the presence of a visitor, loitering of an elderly person, a rapid change in condition of a patient in bed, waking up of a baby or infant, criminal in robbery or theft on a car, a burglar into the home and offenses of a wild animal occur, etc. so that measures for crime and fire prevention, medical care and so on can be performed with no mistakes, or alternately since the scene can be actually confirmed even when there is a malfunctioning of an infrared sensor, false information on small animals and others, fruitless efforts such as immediate dispatch to the scene otherwise caused by false information can also be avoided.
When the image is formed from infrared rays, a conspicuous light source for shooting is unnecessary, thereby enabling an installment site for the communication device as a crime preventive device so as not to be conspicuous. Further, an active light source is not necessary in a case where far-infrared rays which a human body can radiate are picked up by the imaging unit, thereby not only enabling more certain crime prevention to be implemented, but eliminating false recognition of a change in a subject such as sways of a lifeless thing under the influence of air streams. On the other hand, in a case where a picture is picked up using a light source of near infrared rays, a person can be discerned with more ease since a human image even in the dark can be picked up as a picture image close to a visible light image.
Further, when a sender side and a recipient side have communication devices, the recipient side can remotely communicate with a site of occurrence of an abnormal situation in an interactive manner with image and speech since the communication devices have an image pick-up unit and a transmitting unit for transmitting shot image information to a recipient. Further, when each of the sender side and the recipient side has a proper, plural number of the devices at hand, a surveillance area, for example, can be expanded according to the number of rooms or the number of houses to be surveyed or a further reinforcement in a surveillance system and a cooperation in crime prevention and fire prevention can be expected through a network of family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances, people in the close neighborhood and others.
In a case where a daughter device to which at least an image pick-up unit as described above can be connected so as to enable wired or wireless communication to be provided, a location of the image pick-up unit is not required to be near a communication device but can be placed at a more useful site. As one example, when a daughter device is located at the front door as an interphone connected to the home communication system, not only can preparation to receive a visitor be quickly conducted, but early discovery can be achieved of a suspicious person at the front door.
An auxiliary device for communication of a sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, on one hand, a detecting unit for detecting at least one of a human body and a fire is equipped to a vessel connected to a external connecting terminal of a portable telephone provided with a speech and image transmitting function using commercial electromagnetic waves, while on the other hand, an auto-dialing instruction originating section for calling a specified telephone of the recipient based on a predetermined output signal from the detecting unit automatically while specifying the telephone equipped with a image display function of the recipient is equipped to a portable telephone or the vessel.
A sensor such as a human body detecting unit comprises at least one of a pyroelectricity type or a thermopile type infrared detector detecting, for example, infrared rays in the vicinity of 10 xcexcm in wavelength, a supersonic wave type detector and a near infrared detector detecting near infrared rays in the vicinity of 1 xcexcm in wavelength, and a sensor as a fire detecting unit comprises at least one of a pyroelectricity type or a thermopile type infrared flame detector detecting, for example, infrared rays in the vicinity of 4.3 xcexcm in wavelength, a thermal detector, a smoke detector and a ultraviolet detector.
In a case where crime prevention, welfare and others are the objectives, an auxiliary device for communication equipped with a human body detecting unit can be made ready for use, in a case of fire prevention being an objective, an auxiliary device for communication equipped with a fire detecting unit is made ready for use and in a case of crime prevention, welfare and others, and fire prevention being objectives, two kinds of auxiliary devices for communication or an auxiliary device for communication equipped with a human body detector and a fire detector can also be used. Further, such auxiliary devices for communication are preferably placed at as many predetermined sites as possible in a building, a warehouse and other locations requiring monitoring.
On the other hand, a telephone with an image display function (which may be of either an installed type or a portable type, is preferably of a portable type when a recipient is frequently on the move outside the home or office and hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9ctelephone on the recipient sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) other than a portable telephone equipped with this auxiliary device for communication (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cportable telephone on the sender sidexe2x80x9d, for convenience) is made ready to use and based on a predetermined output signal from the detecting unit, the telephone on the recipient side as previously specified can be automatically called by an auto-dialing instruction originating section.
With the above described construction and arrangement, for example, in a case where a suspicious person intrudes into a warehouse or a like building, the intruder is detected by the human body detector when the intruder moves around in the vicinity of the human body detector of the auxiliary device for communication, while in a case where a fire breaks out, such a situation is detected by the fire detector, a predetermined output signal is issued from the detecting unit based on the detection and thereby, the telephone previously specified on the recipient side is automatically called by the auto-dialing instruction originating section.
Further, when plural kinds of human body detecting units with different detecting functions or plural kinds of fire detecting units with different detecting functions are provided, detecting accuracy increases, thereby realizing an advantage of higher reliability.
In brief, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, since the telephone on the recipient side is equipped with an image display unit, it can be visually confirmed in a remote manner, with the help of an auxiliary device for communication equipped with the human body detecting unit, whether or not a calling information source of the portable telephone on the sender side is an intrusion of a suspicious person and in addition to this, other activities such as a call from a handicapped person, the presence of a visitor, movement of an elderly person, a rapid change in condition of a patient in bed, waking up of a baby or infant, a criminal in robbery or theft on a car, a burglar into the home, offenses of a wild animal and others that may occur and in an auxiliary device for communication equipped with the fire detecting unit, occurrence of a fire can be recognized visually and in a remote manner.
Especially, in a case where a portable telephone equipped with an auxiliary device for communication is further equipped with image display unit for displaying shot image information from a sender side in communication, the portable telephone can remotely communicate with the scene of occurrence of an abnormal situation using image and speech in an interactive manner. When an appropriate, plural number of auxiliary devices for communication with such a construction are made ready for use on each of the sender and recipient sides, a surveillance area, for example, can be expanded according to the number of rooms or the number of houses, to be surveyed, or a further reinforcement in cooperation in aspects of crime prevention, fire prevention, welfare and medical care and a surveillance system can be expected through a network of family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances, people in the close neighborhood and others.